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| Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 32 | 
Aug 22, 2009, 11:49 AM
Updated
Aug 22, 2009 at 11:57 AM by lamazeteacher
 Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine
oops, none
Originally Posted by ozoneranger  Wow, I've never lived in a town that didn't have free or reduced price clinics supported by local doctors & hospitals for patients without insurance.
The town I currently live in is small, (about 7,000 people) & we have 3.
What will happen to the "free and reduced price" clinics no longer are supported by the community, due to the financial climate?   | | No. 33 |
Aug 22, 2009, 11:55 AM
Updated
Aug 22, 2009 at 12:08 PM by lamazeteacher
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine
"14 million of the uninsured are fully eligible for government assistance through programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP, yet for some unknown reason, don't apply for benefits." quote from ozoneranger's post #23 Where do you unearth stats such as those in your post? Certainly not from the links offered therein! Medicaid for one, won't look at any application unless the person has no money, and earns/gets less than $1200./month!
"There is, in fact, an entire network of hospitals dedicated to providing care, at no expense to the families they serve." quote from same post St. Jude's is not a possibility for families with children other than the patient, who need to attend school; and family members who must go to work daily. Cost of gas, meals away from home, etc. are prohibitive!
"If millions of Americans aren't availing themselves of taxpayer-funded coverage, why should we think that an even bigger government healthcare bureaucracy would solve the problem" quote from same post There are many people who won't set foot in a DPSS office, due to wait time, need to fill in lengthy forms without understanding them, pride, disbelief in "system", etc., etc., etc. There is a sense of acceptibility when everyone uses the same/similar funding source for their medical/health care | | No. 34 |
Aug 22, 2009, 12:01 PM
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine Originally Posted by lamazeteacher "14 million of the uninsured are fully eligible for government assistance through programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP, yet for some unknown reason, don't apply for benefits." quote from ozoneranger's post #23
Where do you unearth stats such as those in your post? Certainly not from the links offered therein!
Medicaid for one, won't look at any application unless the person has no money, and earns/gets less than $1200./month!
In my state, it doesn't matter how poor you are, you will not get Medicaid unless you are 1) under 18, 2) pregnant, 3) permanently disabled, or 4) have one of a v. few (four or five, I believe) specific chronic diseases. If you don't fit into one of those categories, you are just SOL.
Also, there are no free or reduced price clinics/services in my county at all (although we certainly have plenty of poverty!) I tried to find assistance for a friend of mine a few years ago who was unemployed and needed a colonoscopy, and there was no assistance available. Period.
| | No. 35 |
Aug 22, 2009, 12:57 PM
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine Originally Posted by ozoneranger "Merritt Hawkins, a consulting firm that specializes in recruiting physicians and other health care professionals, surveyed more than 1,150 medical offices in 15 cities. The survey measured average appointment wait times in family practices as well as four specialties: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics/gynecology and orthopedic surgery.
The survey found that, on average, wait times have increased by 8.6 days per city. Boston had the longest wait, averaging 49.6 days, followed by Philadelphia with 27 and Los Angeles with 24.2. The shortest was Atlanta with an 11.2-day wait.
In all cities among all the specialties, the wait was 20.5 days.
T The survey surmises that long wait times in Boston could be the result in part of the 2006 health reform initiative that requires nearly every Massachusetts resident to get health insurance. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...aittimes_N.htm
Massachusetts' wait time increased when the state wide reform initiative took effect.
You have to fight billing problems? Thank our govt. interference for that too....ICD9 (hell-o) "1998: Merritt Hawkins & Associates/The MHA Group earns the endorsement of over 20 healthcare organizations"
Hmmmm, I wonder whose interests this firm represents.
I wonder, as a leading corporation, what bias they have?
I wonder why the Massachusett's Nurses Association is affiliating with the California Nurses Association/National Nurse Organizing Committee? 
Maybe they just oppose a single payer system.
Maybe that's why they "surmise" things? 
Sometimes you have to look under the rocks
| | No. 36 |
Aug 23, 2009, 03:40 PM
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine
"St. Jude's is not a possibility for families with children other than the patient, who need to attend school; and family members who must go to work daily. Cost of gas, meals away from home, etc. are prohibitive!"
St. Jude's covers ALL expenses. Food, travel, lodging. For ALL families, all over the world.
Are you saying you'd stay home & let one child die, just because the other had school?
| | No. 37 |
Aug 23, 2009, 05:08 PM
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine Originally Posted by GrumpyRN63 Socialized medicine = socialized society, we would say goodbye to our liberty and freedoms we so much enjoy in this country.
Do you genuinely think that? I find it incredibly laughable that people actually think like that.
I come from Australia. We have universal healthcare. I do not consider that my country lacks either liberty or freedom.
People's arguments, even when partially logical, are weakened so much as to be dismissed when they make such ridiculous statements as "fact".
| | No. 39 |
Aug 26, 2009, 11:23 PM
Re: Socialism Is the Best Medicine Originally Posted by Katie82 This may be true, but I'm not sure how having a Single Payer system is going to help this issue. Introducing millions more patients into an already overburdened system will not help anyone get an appointment sooner.
You are probably right because this is people who have a doctor.
We probably need more primary practitioners. NPs? ...Only 26 percent of Americans and Canadians reported being able see their doctor on the day they called, compared with 60 percent in the Netherlands and 48 percent in Britain. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, says America ranks last overall in the fund's comparative studies, which consider access, equity, cost, quality, and efficiency measures across select developed countries.
"Where we do well is on …selective surgery," she says. Only 8 percent of Americans have to wait four months or more for an elective procedure, and 62 percent wait less than a month. In Britain, 41 percent of patients have to wait four months or more. The disparity between primary and elective care, says Davis, is mostly due to a shortage of primary-care docs in the U.S.; we produce more specialists because specialists earn a lot more.... http://www.newsweek.com/id/212152 |
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